Electrical Behaviour of Finely Divided Ice

Abstract The electrical behaviour of ice which has been finely ground and compressed was investigated during ageing in air and over a range of temperatures. The dielectric behaviour may be accurately represented as the sum of two elliptical relaxation spectra. The behaviour eventually stabilizes wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Authors: Paren, J. G., Glen, J. W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1978
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000033396
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000033396
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Summary:Abstract The electrical behaviour of ice which has been finely ground and compressed was investigated during ageing in air and over a range of temperatures. The dielectric behaviour may be accurately represented as the sum of two elliptical relaxation spectra. The behaviour eventually stabilizes with similar activation energies for the mean relaxation time of each spectrum c. 0.25 eV, and the ratio of the relaxation times is ten in samples of density c . 0.42 Mg m -3 . Arguments are presented on whether the higher-frequency dispersion is a consequence of the heterogeneous nature of the samples or is a bulk relaxation process. The similarities between the behaviour of such finely ground ice and of deposited snow and polar glacier ice are discussed. The extent to which the results may be attributed to surface adsorption of CO 2 are examined by reference to measurements of the CO 2 content of finely divided ice and ice from polar regions.